Mother of 'Baby Hope': news of death devastating

Tuesday

Oct 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 15, 2013 at 11:14 AM

NEW YORK - The mother of "Baby Hope," who was murdered and packed in a cooler in 1991 and only recently identified, said she was devastated to hear about her daughter's death, allegedly at the hands of a relative, according to news reports.

NEW YORK — The mother of “Baby Hope,” who was murdered and packed in a cooler in 1991 and only recently identified, said she was devastated to hear about her daughter’s death, allegedly at the hands of a relative, according to news reports.

Margarita Castillo, 52, broke her silence yesterday, telling reporters from behind her Queens apartment door that she is “just waiting for justice” for Anjelica Castillo, who was 4 at the time of her death.

“We are not going to have peace,” she said in Spanish, the New York Daily News reported. “You can’t even describe a punishment.”

Two sources close to the case told Reuters that a Manhattan grand jury is reviewing evidence against Conrado Juarez, 52, a relative of the victim on her father’s side, who was arrested on Saturday in connection with the case.

Juarez confessed to the killing after more than 12 hours of interrogation, his court-appointed public defender, Michael Croce, said yesterday.

Juarez, who despite his age was Anjelica’s cousin, has been placed in protective custody on Riker’s Island “for his own safety” Croce said.

A tip from the dead child’s older stepsister led police to Castillo, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited an unidentified law-enforcement source late yesterday. Soon, investigators approached Juarez, a dishwasher at a Greenwich Village restaurant.

Still, crucial questions surrounding the child’s disappearance remain unanswered. Chief among those is why no one ever reported the child missing.